Articles from February, 2018

Weekly Market Commentary, February 27, 2018

February 27, 2018 | By Robare & Jones

The Markets U.S. Treasuries are offering a lesson in supply and demand. Last week, the U.S. Treasury auctioned $258 billion in bonds. Treasury auctions are the way the United States government finances its debt. The Treasury sells short-, intermediate-, and long-term IOUs, known as bills, notes, and bonds. When investors and governments purchase bonds, they agree to lend money to the United States. In return, the United States agrees to pay an amount of interest over a certain period of … Read More

Weekly Market Commentary, February 21, 2018

February 21, 2018 | By Robare & Jones

The Markets As New York Fashion Week ended, inflation strutted its stuff. Ever since the Federal Reserve began raising the Fed funds rate in 2015, analysts have been anticipating higher inflation. The fact that price increases remained relatively small was a perplexing mystery. Then, last week, inflation increased faster than expected. The Bureau of Labor Statistics reported the Consumer Price Index (CPI), one measure of inflation, rose 0.5 percent in January. As you might expect, the cost of some items … Read More

Weekly Market Commentary, February 13, 2018

February 13, 2018 | By Robare & Jones

The Markets Back to reality… After months of eerie calm, stock market volatility has returned. The CBOE Volatility Index (VIX) – a measure of how turbulent investors expect stock markets to be during the next 30 days – appeared to fall asleep in November 2016. For more than a year, a level of serenity that is rarely associated with stock markets prevailed and U.S. share prices moved steadily higher. It appears that time is behind us. Barron’s wrote: “With February’s … Read More

Weekly Market Commentary, February 6, 2018

February 6, 2018 | By Robare & Jones

The Markets It was not a good week for stocks and the market decline continued on Monday. Markets are nearing a correction (a 10% decline from a high in one or more market indexes). Corrections on average occur annually but markets have not corrected since early 2016. We have been discussing with clients that markets are overdue for a correction for some time, but it is impossible to know when or for what reason corrections occur. The speed at which … Read More